Ah, tax season.
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite by Suki Kim
I saw Suki Kim on The Daily Show and immediately added her book to my holds list at the library. Seriously, being able to immediately access my holds list and all the ebooks from the Chicago Public Library at all times has completely changed my life. Sometimes I feel like I stumbled here from some other dimension (there are these things called libraries, guys, and all the books are available for free!) but I digress. Ms Kim taught English to college-age children in North Korea and provides an interesting glimpse into a world we rarely see. While the students at the school seem (unsurprisingly) quite brain-washed about their Dear Leader, it did make me stop and think about the things I assume as fact.
I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark
I mentioned my love of MHC in January. I turned to this book for a quick escape from the crazy that is my life at tax time. There are two murders interwoven in this story line, so it moved quickly. While I didn’t find this book as compelling of some of her earlier work, I will likely pick up the subsequent books in the “Under Suspicion” series of which this is a part. MHC is like pizza – even bad MHC is good.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Right after the Oscars, I added this book to my holds list at the library. Yes, that means two books from my holds list came available during tax time (three, technically, but one was abandoned). This book was so, so good. I was heartbroken for Alice and her family as she struggles through the early stages of Alzheimer’s – her entire life, and theirs, by extension, are upended. It was interesting to think about what is left when external things (predominantly the career for which Alice worked very hard) are striped away. I was, at times, infuriated with her husband and his general reactions to her diagnosis, but at the same time, I’m positive this is something I can’t understand without experiencing first hand and all the “well, I’d never do that” in my head is my own ego speaking.